Sonia Mazzei. A passionate primary school teacher who loves to teach and learn

Put Yourself in Someone Else’s Shoes

I’ve recently been teaching my students about what it means to be a bystander. I’ve noticed that Grade 3 is a tough year! It seems to be the age where children are trying to work out who they are, where they belong and who they gel with! After numerous attempts to sort issues out, I realised I needed to do something more than circle time. Myself and my colleagues have decided to base our Inquiry unit this term on teaching students how deal with real issues that are happening outside and in their friendship groups.

I’ve also realised how powerful it is to ‘keep it real.’ I’ve been using real scenarios and issues that are happening in the classroom to show children how to deal with things in both positive and negative ways. A few things that have really worked for me, and that I think are worth sharing…

1. Get your kids to scrunch up a piece of paper and say sorry to it. It shows them that saying ‘sorry’ isn’t enough and that treating others in a negative way can hurt them for life.

2. Use the song ‘Caught in a Crowd’ by Kate Miller-Heidke and once you’ve watched it, have children put themselves in the characters shoes. I drew a pair of feet and had children come and speak from the characters perspectives. They had to choose whether they were the character as an adult or as a child. So powerful!!!!

3. Expose them to different ways of dealing with issues. A great example can be seen on this link: http://goo.gl/RSTzbr. This was also another powerful story.

4. Most importantly teach the students how to be honest and respectful. We don’t need to be best friends with everyone, however we still need to be respectful!